Terrifying information

Winston Churchill summed it up when he said, “To those of us who study the course of human events, one thing is clear. People are wack.” That is never truer than during the time around Halloween. In honor of the holiday, UIP presents another edition of trivia featuring the Strangeness and Oddity of our world and, perhaps, of other worlds, as well.

1. Psychic Jemima Packington of Great Britain, granddaughter of an accomplished tea leaves reader, gained fame in 2012 by correctly predicting the results of several sporting events using which unusual method of divination?

a. Deciphering messages from the static on her late mother’s television set
b. Tossing asparagus in the air and reading how the stalks landed
c. Writing the answers to crossword puzzle clues selected by spirits
d. Studying the positions of each member of her herd of Guernsey cows

2. Arapaima, a 200 lb. meat-eating fish native to the Amazon, breathes air and preys on any fish or bird species within its reach. Which unusual anatomical trait aids arapaima’s aggressive hunting habits?

a. They give off a liquid toxin that temporarily paralyzes prey
b. They can stalk animals on land for up to six hours
c. They have teeth growing out of their tongues
d. They can leap up to forty feet either vertically or horizontally

3. When Ayano Tsukimi retired to her home village of Nagoro, Japan in 2003, it distressed her to find all but a few dozen residents had moved away. Tsukimi, undaunted, conceived which scheme to repopulate Nagoro?

a. She built hundreds of the paper houses to attract Aka Manto, or house spirits
b. She founded a cult dedicated to big-in-Japan character actor Scatman Crothers
c. She peopled the village with life-sized homemade dolls
d. She spent her retirement money on a landing site for UFOs

 

 

Answers: (1) b; (2) c; (3) c